How bans or reports on steam forums work?

[FB_Destroyer_Rebecca]

Hey,
1. Who can ban someone in steam-game-forums and who is allowed to become a moderator there?
Like can mods abuse their power and ban whomever they want without reason?

2. Also when you report someones post who sees that report?
Do reports only get sent to moderators of that game forum or do steam decide what to do after a certain amount of reports?

3., Sometimes I get a message "Thanks for reporting a discussions post" A discussion post you reported has been reviewed and action has been taken.
Is this an automated message or did a moderator initiate it?
How can I be sure that something has been done when maybe a moderator can send this message without doing something actually....???

[LowJack_VA1]

1. The Game moderators.
1.1 Game moderators are hired by the game publishers, Steam are hired by a group of helpful posters and are unpaid volunteers.
2. To moderators.
3. This is not an automated message,its a moderator thanking you.
3.1 No one will report to you what exact punishment, if any, was taken.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

To add... Game devs can opt into Valve moderation where support staff looks at and takes action against reported content.

[LowJack_VA1]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

To add... Game devs can opt into Valve moderation where support staff looks at and takes action against reported content.

:qr:

Thx, Hotsauce!!

[Zefar]

We're not really "Game Moderators" but more of Global Moderators and Third party Moderators.

Global Moderators can Moderate all forum sections. Third party Moderators are the ones picked by the developer to Moderate their forum section.

We have no power in their game with our Moderator rights.

[FB_Destroyer_Rebecca]

Hey,
so banning in Game forums is merely a thing third party moderators can do who got picked by the developer, right?

Is there also a ban-system or such. Like I saw someone being banned but he came back after 3 days and then got banned again. Is it always a personal decision how long the ban will be or as asked is there a system behind it?

[🜂∴🜏 Cassie]

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Hey,
so banning in Game forums is merely a thing third party moderators can do who got picked by the developer, right?

Is there also a ban-system or such. Like I saw someone being banned but he came back after 3 days and then got banned again. Is it always a personal decision how long the ban will be or as asked is there a system behind it?

Game hubs are usually moderated by moderators who are selected by the game developers. However, in some cases, global community moderators and Steam Support's hired moderators may intervene.

As for a ban system, that is for the game devs to decide.

Some game hubs may have very lenient moderation, while others are more strict.

[Satoru]

Moderation isnt a science its more of an art. While obviously there are rules that guide what generally moderators should do, punishments can vary. Also punishments can vary on information you don't have and thus may not make 'sensee' to you.

For example you might see Person A swear at someone, then nothing happens. But Person B does the exact same thing and is permanently banned. Why is that? One explanation would be that Person A only did it once, and probably just got a warning that isn't visible to you. Meanwhile Person B may have been breaking the rules all week despite warning and temp bans. Thus got a permanent ban.

Moderators will generally take into account previous behavior/bans into what future infractions and their punishments should be.

Obviously different moderators can have different thresholds for specific things too. So you can have variations between how different moderators will approach a particular problem

Even different groups/games will have different ways they interpret or enforce rules. For example in the general forums, things like advertising are generally taken down quickly otherwise this place would look like a war zone. But other game hubs dont mnd them and let users advertise things like their servers or youtube channels etc. again both are following the same rules, but have different interpretations and thresholds that make sense for their areas of management.

[FB_Destroyer_Rebecca]

I thought so too, though I wasnt sure 100%.
It really depends on the game and moderator vastly. I also see many game forums being moderated very well!
Hence nobody is perfect except you are a moderator ;)

Last but not least question: Do reports contain the text?
So what happens if you report someones text with an insult in it but meanwhile the causer deletes it or better, he rewrites it........?

[B✪✪tsy]

In other words, the real moderators are the Steam community mods. The '3rd party' game moderators can even be a 12 year old kids moderating the forum. They can be cheaters with multiple VAC bans on record, etc.... or they can be normal guys/gals that moderate the forum properly. 3rd party mods is like 'wild west', there are no real rules or selection setup for becoming a game forum moderator, it's all up for the devs to decide. Most games have decent forum moderators, but there are definitely some bad apples too.

[FB_Destroyer_Rebecca]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

In other words, the real moderators are the Steam community mods. The '3rd party' game moderators can even be a 12 year old kids moderating the forum. They can be cheaters with multiple VAC bans on record, etc.... or they can be normal guys/gals that moderate the forum properly. 3rd party mods is like 'wild west', there are no real rules or selection setup for becoming a game forum moderator, it's all up for the devs to decide. Most games have decent forum moderators, but there are definitely some bad apples too.

Indeed! In one occasion I saw someone getting banned just so the moderator could show he has the power over him.
Anyway, how do I distinguish between all these moderators?
Is this only by color or isnt it even possible?
Maybe there is a steam site that gives an overview?

So "Zefar" here has orange letter....meaning he is a 3rd party moderator ???

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Zefar is a Global Moderator.

ALL moderators have orange names.

[Jackie Daytona]

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Hey,
1. Who can ban someone in steam-game-forums and who is allowed to become a moderator there?

This is actually 2 questions:

• A: Moderators and support staff can ban anyone from any of Steam's forums.
• B: There is no way to become a Global Moderator. There is no application process. Members are hand-picked by Steam staff. Even then, it happens rarely. Out of the millions of Steam users, there are only about 20 Global Mods.
  
  There are also game specific moderators. These are chosen by the developers or publishers of any given game. Sometimes these are community managers hired by the companies behind the games. Other times they are simply normal Steam users chosen by the developer/publisher.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Like can mods abuse their power and ban whomever they want without reason?

"1." is three questions now...

Yes. Moderators can (and will!) do whatever they want.

"Please note that Administrators/Moderators reserve the right to change/edit/delete/move/merge any content at any time if they feel it is inappropriate, abusive, or incorrectly categorized."

Terms so nebulous as to encompass anything and everything. This rule means they cannot ever be in the wrong. No matter what.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

2. Also when you report someones post who sees that report?

All global mods, and mods specifically for the game in question.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Do reports only get sent to moderators of that game forum or do steam decide what to do after a certain amount of reports?

Global mods usually ignore game forum reports. Unless something happens that forces them to do something. (Such as the shady link spam from Chinese bots on the PUBG forum.)

So when posting under a game's Steam forum, it's that game's moderator that will see/act on your report. (Usually, anyway.)

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

3., Sometimes I get a message "Thanks for reporting a discussions post" A discussion post you reported has been reviewed and action has been taken.
Is this an automated message or did a moderator initiate it?

Automated.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

How can I be sure that something has been done when maybe a moderator can send this message without doing something actually....???

You can't. Although that message itself tells you something occurred.

The only way to know for sure is to keep track of messages you report, and checking back later.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Last but not least question: Do reports contain the text?
So what happens if you report someones text with an insult in it but meanwhile the causer deletes it or better, he rewrites it........?

I don't know about mods... but support staff can see your deleted posts. I wouldn't be surprised if mods can see deleted posts as well.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Originally posted by B00tsy:

In other words, the real moderators are the Steam community mods. The '3rd party' game moderators can even be a 12 year old kids moderating the forum. They can be cheaters with multiple VAC bans on record, etc.... or they can be normal guys/gals that moderate the forum properly. 3rd party mods is like 'wild west', there are no real rules or selection setup for becoming a game forum moderator, it's all up for the devs to decide. Most games have decent forum moderators, but there are definitely some bad apples too.

Indeed! In one occasion I saw someone getting banned just so the moderator could show he has the power over him.

You seem to be leaving a lot out of the story there mainly why there was a situation where a moderator had to give out the ban to show the other user that they could do it.

[FB_Destroyer_Rebecca]

Originally posted by ♢♣ Jekyll Hyde ♣♢:

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Hey,
1. Who can ban someone in steam-game-forums and who is allowed to become a moderator there?

This is actually 2 questions:

• A: Moderators and support staff can ban anyone from any of Steam's forums.
• B: There is no way to become a Global Moderator. There is no application process. Members are hand-picked by Steam staff. Even then, it happens rarely. Out of the millions of Steam users, there are only about 20 Global Mods.
  
  There are also game specific moderators. These are chosen by the developers or publishers of any given game. Sometimes these are community managers hired by the companies behind the games. Other times they are simply normal Steam users chosen by the developer/publisher.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Like can mods abuse their power and ban whomever they want without reason?

"1." is three questions now...

Yes. Moderators can (and will!) do whatever they want.

"Please note that Administrators/Moderators reserve the right to change/edit/delete/move/merge any content at any time if they feel it is inappropriate, abusive, or incorrectly categorized."

Terms so nebulous as to encompass anything and everything. This rule means they cannot ever be in the wrong. No matter what.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

2. Also when you report someones post who sees that report?

All global mods, and mods specifically for the game in question.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Do reports only get sent to moderators of that game forum or do steam decide what to do after a certain amount of reports?

Global mods usually ignore game forum reports. Unless something happens that forces them to do something. (Such as the shady link spam from Chinese bots on the PUBG forum.)

So when posting under a game's Steam forum, it's that game's moderator that will see/act on your report. (Usually, anyway.)

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

3., Sometimes I get a message "Thanks for reporting a discussions post" A discussion post you reported has been reviewed and action has been taken.
Is this an automated message or did a moderator initiate it?

Automated.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

How can I be sure that something has been done when maybe a moderator can send this message without doing something actually....???

You can't. Although that message itself tells you something occurred.

The only way to know for sure is to keep track of messages you report, and checking back later.

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Last but not least question: Do reports contain the text?
So what happens if you report someones text with an insult in it but meanwhile the causer deletes it or better, he rewrites it........?

I don't know about mods... but support staff can see your deleted posts. I wouldn't be surprised if mods can see deleted posts as well.

WoW! Thanks for the time you took to answer and the good overview!

[🜂∴🜏 Cassie]

Originally posted by DrShepherdLIVE:

Last but not least question: Do reports contain the text?
So what happens if you report someones text with an insult in it but meanwhile the causer deletes it or better, he rewrites it........?

The report contains the exact post as it was, at the time it was reported. Editing the post after it was reported does not change that.

All moderators can see deleted posts.